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Implications of SkyTran
Inventions shape our lives. This site considers likely effects of fast automated personal transportation such as aerospace engineer Doug Malewicki's SkyTran system under development at NASA Ames Research. Low-speed "Personal Rapid Transit" systems has been in use since the 1970's, but this is much more radical.
200-pound 2-passenger vehicles traveling above the traffic at speeds up to 150 MPH -- now that's revolutionary! Light elevated tracks held up by ordinary utility poles, needing no costly right-of-way -- profitable systems, unlike public transportation today -- that's financially revolutionary! Small, light vehicles with no pollution and extraordinary fuel economy: 200 miles per gallon equivalent at 100 MPH -- will be environmentally revolutionary. All computer-driven; so text your friends, do work; even sleep perfectly safely -- a revolution in our lives. Packages in minutes too -- order take-out from any restaurant; businesses cooperating in "lean-production" networks to manufacture full-custom products in hours LittleShopOfWonders. This will change our world as much as driving changed our grandparents'. SkyTranSummary
Cars have reshaped our world for nearly a century; the Internet for over two decades: where people live, how business operates and even family life and the global environment. Rapid, congestion-free travel will be a dream come true for people who live car-choked cities and for harried long-distance commuters. However, just as other revolutionary inventions took decades to have their full impact, the long-term impacts could be even more profound.
Remove traffic jams, parking hassles, and inadequate public transportation -- then dense cities may regain both their historic production efficiency and desirability for living. There will be many pleasant car-free enclaves, whether within cities or many miles away, yet with every kind of service and product cars bring us today. Compared with today's suburbia, both will be far more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable.
Cities would become increasingly more attractive to businesses, operating in new ways. Employees of a company physically distributed over a city may have a single "virtual office" linked by SkyTranEqualsElevator. If consultants and vendor shipments can be on-site in minutes, businesses can radically out-source, keeping only core functions in-house. Individuals can too; why spend hours shopping at stores or waiting in post office lines, when any business in the city can deliver to your apartment lobby or corner convenience store in minutes? Routine activities, both business and personal, will be replaced by efficient specialized services. A common measure of the degree of civilization, "having a complex division of labor", will leap upward. Dense cities, no longer choked with traffic and pollution, will become more efficient production centers, as well as more desirable places to live.
Suburban life will change as well. Parents won't need to spend hours commuting away from their families. With the computer-controlled pods locked into their guideways, commuters and travelers can relax, work or chat by phone without risk of a collision, all while enjoying panaramic elevated city and mountain views not visible at street-level.
Rural areas too will be transformed by visitors and packages traveling long distances rapidly without a driver. Imagine how same-day online shopping will change life at remote towns and farms! Children with special needs or abilities will be able to reach a suitable school 50 miles away safely and quickly, instead of spending hours on buses. Before his boat reaches port, a fisherman will sell his catch online to ten distant restaurants, that serve it to diners just hours later.
This wiki is a forum for informed and logical speculation about the probable social, economic, environmental and other factors of a development we think will be revolutionary. Such a major development deserves to be evaluated from many perspectives. Too often new technology is promoted uncritically, or opposed by reflex; if neither is your taste, read on!
For descriptions of the basic concept and technology, visit their site, and perhaps the inventor's personal site for details. Then, if you have ideas or opinions to share, please come back and contribute! Take a look at the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software. And create a user page (see the icons at the top right of the page), so readers will know who contributed what, and can respond accordingly.
CURRENT TOPICS
- SkyTranSummary
- SkyTranSafety
- SkyTranEconomics
- SkyTranAsPrivateVehicle
- SkyTranAsPublicTransit
- SkyTranFreightDelivery
- SkyTranEqualsElevator
- SkyTranProperties
- SkyTranBusinessProposition
- SkyTran - A List of Benefits
- SecurityAndPrivacy
- CrimeAndPolicing
- EmergencyServices
- IndependentElderly
- IndependentHandicapped
- HomeServices
- WhoOwnsSkyTran
- SocialImpediments
- SuperChina
- SuperConsultants
- SuperSevenEleven
- TheTimeMachine
- UniversitiesAndSkyTran
- WhoControlsVehicles
- BestPlaceToBe
- SafeTran
- ClassWelfare
- DistanceRevived
- EnergyImpacts
- HomeOutsourcing
- ExtremeOutsourcing
- ExtremeJustInTime
- FrictionFreeCapitalism
- HowDenseCouldCitiesBe
- IsSkyTranANaturalMonopoly
- LittleShopOfWonders
- ExtremeCustomization
- PimpMyPod
NOTE: This site was rescued from aggressive spammers who have repeatedly rendered it unusable. If you are unable to create a user account, contact my gmail account- howiedotgoodell (including how you first learned about SkyTran) and I'll plug you in! Cheers! --HowieGoodell 20:14, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
